Coordination and Working Groups Meeting: Join us! Monday, February 10th at 6pm for our Coordination and Working Group meetings where we’ll get to work on all of our exciting campaigns and plug folks into our Communications, Research, Cultural Work, and Outreach Groups! We’ll be meeting at 6:30pm at LA CAN: 838 E. 6th Street, Los Angeles, X-street: Gladys.

Feb 12th – HRC to Present Work Plan on SAR Hearings/ForumMeet at 9:30 AM across from City Hall entrance at 200 N. Main St.

On Thursday February 12th, the Los Angeles City Human Relations Commission (HRC) will be meeting to present its work plan on the holding Public Hearings/Forums on the LAPD Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) program. The HRC will be meeting at 10 am on Feb 12th at the City Hall. The commission made a public commitment to present its plan at last month’s meeting.

The HRC has been dragging its feet claiming new commission appointees, capacity issues and other excuses, since the motion to hold these hearings/forums was passed in October 2103. Finally after continued pressure from the community, the commission is taking up the motion again on February 12th to unveil their action plan on this issue. But the danger always remain that they may water down the original motion or change the language. We need to keep the pressure on them to make sure that HRC upholds the commitment of the original motion that was passed by the previous commission unanimously.

This becomes even more imperative in light of the overwhelming racial profiling of black communities in Los Angeles revealed by the LAPD Inspector General’s January 27th audit of LAPD SAR program.

On Tuesday February 3rd numerous community members attended the LA Police Commission meeting in Echo Park to express their concerns regarding abusive policing tactics and racial profiling within their community. The Stop LAPD Spying Coalition testified in regards to the continual trend of racial profiling found in the 2015 Inspector General Audit of the Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative. The 2015 audit which includes a full year’s sample of SARs report and found that 30% of SARs were filed on persons identified as white and 30% were filed on persons identified as black. The crux of this statistic is that African Americans make up less than 10% of the cities population while white persons are 43% of the population- CLEARLY racial profiling is occurring, meaning that blacks are racially profiled by the SAR program at a rate 3 times higher than other communities while black women accounted for 50% of SARs filed on women, a 5 to 1 ratio.

Other community organizations such as S.T.A.Y. and Youth Justice Coalition spoke directly to the commissioners regarding the detrimental impact of gang injunctions on youth of color- highlighting the rapid increase in incarceration of youth of color.

This is not the first time that more than 20 community members have testified in front of the police commission in regards to urgent community concerns. Each time, however, the police commission completely dismisses, ignores, or has the audacity to mock community speakers. Rarely does the commission address or follow up with community’s concerns. It is clear that the commission is a rubber stamp body that refuses to investigate or hold the LAPD accountable.

As concerned community members we must continue to hold their feet to the fire and expose just how ineffective civilian oversight boards can be. In order to bring transformation we must have full disclosure with police leadership under oath. If the police commission does not do it willingly then the people’s power will push till there is no option left.

#IncompetentOversight #Deniesracism

Sign the Petition/ Fill out Community SurveyDrone Free- LAPD/ No Drones, LA!

The Drone-Free LAPD/No Drones, LA Campaign is currently working to collect thousands of signatures on paper and online. Please sign thepetition online and also send it to your friends!